Now that you have managed to get past the holidays and re-establish your work pattern, you should be warned that dozens of new laws came into effect January 1, 2019, which will impact Employers throughout the state of California. Many of these of will be covered in our upcoming Annual Update on February 22, 2019, at National University. If you are interested in attending, please contact Jill at [email protected] In addition to legislation, there were also numerous Supreme Court decisions [...]

I don’t normally write “alarmist” pieces, and I rarely alert clients to the activities of other law firms. However, there is a law firm in Southern California that Employers need to be warned about. I have handled at least 20 claims in the past 18 months resulting from this firm finding clients in our area. I am not sure how they are gaining clients, but it is their standard practice to write a letter on behalf of their client (former [...]

Normally at the beginning of the year I prod my clients to update their employee handbooks and refresh their management training as required by California law. It seems that the beginning of the year has slipped by and we are already in August, but here is the reminder. Earlier this year several laws took effect which impact the manner in which an employer operates their business (such as their ability to inquire into criminal history; and the right to ask [...]

A third of the way through 2018 already, and the California Legislature is hard at work creating new laws to damage California businesses. It is unclear if their intention is to drive us out of the state or merely that they lack the understanding of the impact that these silly laws have. The following is a list of bills and a brief description of their content so that business owners may be aware, and may even want to take action, [...]

Regardless of what side of the debate you fall on, the new law in California prohibiting employers from granting voluntary consent to immigration authorities takes away a basic right of business owners and places companies in the middle of the dispute between the state and federal authorities with regard to undocumented alien workers. Effective January 1, 2018, employers can no longer grant any federal agents access to non-public areas of a work-site: Except to verify the agent has an appropriate [...]

In the last several weeks Governor Brown has signed into law and/or vetoed several pieces of legislation affecting employment in California. AB 1008 (Ban the Box) – Effective January 1, 2018, California employers with five (5) or more employees will no longer be allowed to inquire about criminal history on employment applications or at any time throughout the application process (including interviews) prior to making a “conditional offer of employment”. Once the conditional offer is made, the employer may do [...]

California has once again stepped ahead of the rest of the country as well as the federal government in issuing proposed regulations through the Department of Fair Employment and Housing which would go beyond those issued in 2016 by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The new California regulations, if passed, will go in effect by the end of 2017 and substantially expand the protections for applicants and employees based on “national origin." Current regulations do not clearly define [...]

Current legislation pending in California always includes a mix of good news and bad news for employers. Currently there are four (4) Bills pending (among numerous others) which I found interesting and wanted to share with employers. On the positive side, Assembly Bill 281 and Assembly Bill 1429 both address issues in the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA). PAGA gives private attorneys the right to sue on behalf of the State of California and is currently being used [...]

Contrary to 150 years of law, the California Department of Fair Employment & Housing has now issued new regulations making it more difficult for Employers to deny employment to applicants based upon prior criminal history. Although there has been a movement nationwide to “ban the box,” until now Employers have not been prohibited from refusing to hire applicants based upon actual criminal conviction. The “ban the box” movement seeks to prohibit Employers from denying employment merely because an applicant checks [...]

Recently the California Supreme Court reviewed and defined a 120 year old statute which states that an employee in California must have at least 1 day rest in 7. For most of the 120 years this has been interpreted as averaging 1 day off in 7 (thus requiring 4-5 days off each month). However, with much of the recent tightening of rules by the State Labor Commissioner and courts; employers were left to wonder whether this was sufficient. The exceptions [...]